Lesson Learned 2016 - The Negative

[Rombus]

Not trying to defend FIRST or anything, just really curious on these 2 comments:

Originally Posted by Carl C

I was disappointed to see that the Championship Chairman's Award was presented yet again after a long delay at a different part of the arena. If it truly is the most prestigious award in FIRST, I believe it deserves better treatment than that.

Long delay after the end of Einstein - yes I can agree to that, but it was on the main stage right behind the Einstein fields. Personally, to have all the top awards given out like that for each program along with the Founders Award felt like a proper treatment of the seriousness of the awards.

(BTW: Props to the crews/FTAs who did the tear down, the field this year was a pain in the butt to build and take apart, they made it look effortless to someone who's done it before. Of course it helps that they were all FTAs mostly )

Originally Posted by Metonym

Putting big signs saying what divisions was in what section of the pits would have been nice. I spent a good chunk of my Wednesday evening trying to figure this out so I would be ready to catch all my teams the next day.

There were signs hung up, maybe not the largest, but I could see them from the robot path. I wasn't there on Wednesday, so maybe they got added over night?


To add to the list:
1. The website is very hard to use, If it were not for links from TBA I doubt I would be able to find anything about the rankings or match info.

2. Championship conferences: these REALLY need to be recorded if possible, I missed out on just about everything i wanted to see since I was not there Wednesday, and had to make choices between ones in the same time frame.

3. People need to stop running in the pits! Every time the announcer shouted that i couldn't help but think of the escalator scene in MallRats.

[synth3tk]

Audio/video production quality, specifically during Einstein. I can't understand how they keep screwing this up. Last year was worse for sure with its constant feedback squeals, but they didn't do too much better this time around. How do you have a soundcheck for 15 minutes then still screw up the levels? For somebody who's in the same spot the entire time?!?! You hit the mute button, you unmute the mute button.

And don't get me started on the issues with keying and cropping. Yeah, let's not test this beforehand? Go ahead and resize everything live. Cool.

I'd give way more slack here if this were a regional/district, but we're talking about the final matches of the event of the season! And you've been at this for the last 3 days already!!! If you can't run this properly, it's time to find another company. Mistakes happen even with the best of 'em, sure. But not this many, this often.

EDIT: Also, and I hate complaining about this because I know they tried and mean well, I just wasn't feeling the commentators in between matches during Einstein. I liked that they did stats and facts, but the flow of conversation seemed forced and unnatural, and there were a lot of awkward pauses, especially after attempts at humor. I hope they either train them a bit more next year on this style of commentating, or bring in a more seasoned crew to do this job (maybe some of the GameSense/FUN people).

[JesseK]

The theme and game had one major, glaring hole:

Even the fools in Mideval times knew that a catapult did not have to re-cross yonder mountain before launching the next rock.

[jajabinx124]

Originally Posted by Wendy Holladay

i stopped going to the FIRST website, after trying to use it for months. that makes me sad, but thank you blue alliance.

I don't even bother to navigate the new FIRST website if I am looking for something in particular to be honest.. I just search it on CD and hope someone found it and linked it in their post.

[Drakxii]

Finals/Einstein still have far too much dead time. FIRST need to fill this with something awards, speeches, whatever, instead of just saying "we will be back in 5 minutes or so".

Why can't opening ceremonies happen before opening pits? Matches don't need to immediately start after them...

FIRST website still needs a lot of work. Specifically it should be easier to get to VIMS and TIMS.

No tiebreakers in elims please, just do replays.

Bumpers area needs to be smaller then it was this year.

Stream & record the champ conferences and put them up on youtube and the first website.

Final score screens should have team names.

While I really loved the screen split used at champs and TX regionals, the bottom screens needed views from different angles not the sightly different ones they had. A mix of NE/PWN live actions shots at the bottom and a over view at the top would have been great.

[Andrew Schreiber]

CMP Volunteer food still needs vegetarian options. Saturday where I was the vegetarian option consisted of rice and asparagus with a salad that was almost all spinach. I mean, yeah, I like these things but I don't have the digestive system required to process them.

Maybe 2Champz will have better veggie options.

[orangemoore]

Originally Posted by Drakxii

Bumpers area needs to be smaller then it was this year.

FYI,

This was the same range as it was in 2014 except it is 2" higher off the ground.

Originally Posted by Drakxii

FIRST website still needs a lot of work. Specifically it should be easier to get to VIMS and TIMS.

Also things might be in the works for the website. I can't say much here but from what I know expect things to get better.

If anyone has any suggestions for the website let me know. I can send those on to a person who is working on it.

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

CMP Volunteer food still needs vegetarian options. Saturday where I was the vegetarian option consisted of rice and asparagus with a salad that was almost all spinach. I mean, yeah, I like these things but I don't have the digestive system required to process them.

Maybe 2Champz will have better veggie options.

Lonestar veggie options are usually pretty good. That's typically because Lucia takes direct control of the menu for volunteers and VIPs. We apparently had two gluten-free volunteers this year that ended up with plated meals to make sure they weren't poisoned.

[CalTran]

Originally Posted by Carl C

I was disappointed to see that the Championship Chairman's Award was presented yet again after a long delay at a different part of the arena. If it truly is the most prestigious award in FIRST, I believe it deserves better treatment than that.

Originally Posted by natejo99

I totally agree. Our team voted not to stay around for closing ceremonies and left immediately after Einstein finals. Personally, I was looking forward to the announcement of the Chairman's award, and was disappointed that it was presented so late.

Originally Posted by Rombus

Long delay after the end of Einstein - yes I can agree to that, but it was on the main stage right behind the Einstein fields. Personally, to have all the top awards given out like that for each program along with the Founders Award felt like a proper treatment of the seriousness of the awards.

Originally Posted by Drakxii

Finals/Einstein still have far too much dead time. FIRST need to fill this with something awards, speeches, whatever, instead of just saying "we will be back in 5 minutes or so".

It wasn't that long ago that CCA, FTC Inspire Award, and FLL Champion's Award used to be given out right before Einstein started, and perks of the award were field side seats with Woodie, Dean, and the rest of FIRST brass. I vote we bring this back. It ensured that the biggest audience possible saw the teams that we all should idolize and strive to be like. I vote we bring this practice back.

Originally Posted by Rombus

2. Championship conferences: these REALLY need to be recorded if possible, I missed out on just about everything i wanted to see since I was not there Wednesday, and had to make choices between ones in the same time frame.

Originally Posted by Drakxii

Stream & record the champ conferences and put them up on youtube and the first website.

Supposedly they were recorded. I have yet to see where said recording has surfaced yet though.

Originally Posted by Jared Russell

And the great news is that all Championship Conference talks will be recorded this year, so you don't need to choose between this session and Karthik's...you can have both!

Originally Posted by Kevin Sevcik

There is no saving of seats. Nothing beats being yelled at by 8 people saving 30 seats when you're trying to find 5 together for your team that just got eliminated from Carver playoffs. Nothing beats the new black mom on your team being told "you don't belong here" when she's looking for a seat to watch her son in a match.

Pardon the language, but JFC about that last bit. Sometimes I'm halfway tempted to actually print out the rule in the Administrative manual and carry it around to competitions. I understand that teams want to sit together, but when I'm just one person looking for an open seat, have a freakin' heart.

[JohnFogarty]

I don't like a website that I have to to click through 3 pages of content to find what I'm looking for. They need to fix the website to have sub-menus to navigate to content faster from the homepage. Like, I dunno, the old website had.

[efoote868]

Please stop basing rules on intent. This includes "strategies aimed at"... Things either happen or they don't. When you have to ask "did they mean to do that?", controversy often ensues.

[MARS_James]

Ok I did this last year and it was well received so I am going to do it in this style this year:

Early Game Announcement:

I actually liked this, will go into more about it on the positive thread

EDIT: Putting this here, I also hate the new website especially when I was trying to figure out stuff for Championship

Preseason:
Ok I said it last year but for the teams hosting kick-offs please release the designs earlier, since we basically only had the drawings the night before. I know you are trying to make it fair for everyone but we were lucky to get the field built that we did.

Game Announcement/Kickoff:
I have no real complaints but this is related to the above and the game in general but please make sure next year that the team designed elements and real field elements are actually the same or close enough not completely different.

Build Season:
One again no big complaints but can we please not have $30 game pieces made of foam.

Palmetto Regional:
No complaints this event was amazing even with the Cheval being taken out for a chunk of the time, and the refereeing left a little to be desired but that will be discussed later

Orlando Regional:
I decided to put my money where my mouth was and wanted to referee at Orlando but it was full so I did field reset instead. No complaints here either it was a fun event go to it.

Rocket City Regional:
I am going to cut the regional some slack since it was the inaugural event but a few things. Why were seats on each side of the field different, as in one side had hard plastic chairs and the other had cushions. Certain decisions about how team traffic flowed could have been improved. Lighting on Thursday being different then Friday was an issue that was quickly corrected. Finally why did we not receive chairman's feedback forms? I gave it to my team to turn in and got it back folded up inside our video case. If they were not going to provide the feedback why take the sheet in the first place?

South Florida Regional:
This event should have been my favorite, a regional 7 minutes from my house, get to sleep in my bed, see my dog, it should have been my favorite, it turned out to be my least enjoyable event of the season. The venue had little to little to no food or drink options, heck Thursday at 1:00 I went to get a bottle of water and the concession was already closed. The parking was at the back of the venue then had to walk all the way around to the front, I get the idea was to attract foot traffic but any local would tell you that you get 0 foot traffic in front of the convention center and actually get more near the back. A lot of the volunteers were rude, I have never said that about a FIRST event but here it was true, volunteers appeared more concerned with getting home then letting teams enjoy themselves. Not all volunteers were like this but enough that is warrants mention. After Fridays award ceremony when they announced pits closed in 5 minutes most teams filed out to leave which blocked off the entrance to the pits, when I tried to walk in to put away the things my team uses in the stands I was told the pits were closed and I would not be allowed entry, despite seeing teams still working, I had a collapsible table, giant green wooden 1, 7, 9, and a box filled with stuffed alligators, I clearly am not going back there to work and actually had to have a friendly safety adviser escort me to my pit to put the stuff away. I have never been more embarrassed to be a Florida team then when interacting with the volunteers and realizing that to many of the out of state and international teams attending this is what they think most people involved in Florida FIRST are like and frankly that is unacceptable behavior, volunteers are as much, if not more, representatives of FIRST and especially the event then the teams are and should be held to and act with a higher standard. Finally once again why did we not receive chairman's feedback forms? Seriously we attended 3 regionals this season and 2 did not give feedback forms, and the one that did was the earliest and had the most teams, so I see no excuse for the other two.

Championship:
I did not attend this year due to my home needing emergency repairs but I watched the live stream the entire time since I was still running my teams scouting group. From what I hear it was lovely, and I much appreciated the change over to closing ceremonies happening on the same side as Einstein but echo the sentiment that instead of random dancing I would much prefer some of the speeches and awards that happened at the closing ceremonies to instead of happened in between Einstein matches.

Stronghold as a Game:
I have very few negatives about this game, my only major gripe is the same as it was in 2014, Referees are not score keepers, stop making them so. I know for a fact that if next year they make a scorer position which is different from a referee teams would easily provide volunteers to fill the role.

Good job FIRST last year I said this at the end of my negative post:

Originally Posted by MARS_James

Overall:
I love FIRST, it has shaped my entire adult life, given me life long friends, and memories I will cherish forever. That being said if this is what the new FIRST looks like I am not worried about leaving FIRST as I think FIRST may be on the track to just leave me. Please don't let Recycle Rush and the entire 2015 season be a sign of things to come, let it just be a small bump in the road to a much greater future.

You proved that 2015 was not a sign of things to come, and I am glad you are not leaving me behind keep up the good work.

[XaulZan11]

Originally Posted by synth3tk

EDIT: Also, and I hate complaining about this because I know they tried and mean well, I just wasn't feeling the commentators in between matches during Einstein. I liked that they did stats and facts, but the flow of conversation seemed forced and unnatural, and there were a lot of awkward pauses, especially after attempts at humor. I hope they either train them a bit more next year on this style of commentating, or bring in a more seasoned crew to do this job (maybe some of the GameSense/FUN people).

I really miss Dave's pre-match team history before each match. I hope FIRST puts him and Blair back into positions that made Einstein memorable in the past.

[dodar]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

I really miss Dave's pre-match team history before each match. I hope FIRST puts him and Blair back into positions that made Einstein memorable in the past.

This x100000000000000000000000. What got me most interested in actually learning about other teams was listening to Dave ramble off the histories of the team's on Einstein in 2007-2010 when I was a student.

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

I really miss Dave's pre-match team history before each match. I hope FIRST puts him and Blair back into positions that made Einstein memorable in the past.

This was definitely missing vs. previous years.

In addition,
The website needs a LOT of work, or go back to the old one.
Teams should be able to watch their own team compete in eliminations if they are stuck behind the curtain in the temporary pits.
And the most negative point, the CCA was annouced so late into the agenda!
Many people leave after the last match on Einstein.
In fact, in the past, the winning CCA team was allowed to have front row seats to watch the Einstein matches........speaking from experience, that opportunity was priceless.
Imagine this year's winner, Team 987 who was competing on Einstein. Even better!